Greek businesses in London got a loud reminder this week of how expensive the capital’s high streets have become. HMV, a name that has sold records on Oxford Street since 1921, has announced that it will shut its flagship at 363 Oxford Street in March 2027 because the landlord wants roughly double the current rent. If a national chain with rising sales cannot make the numbers work, every Greek and Cypriot shop, café, salon and clinic in the city should take a second look at its own lease and rates bill.
The story, reported by IanVisits, is short and brutal. HMV first opened at 363 Oxford Street in 1921, closed it in 2019 during administration and came back in November 2023. Three years later the landlord has tabled a rent increase that would roughly double what HMV pays, on top of a costly renovation. The managing director called the shop commercially unviable and said the company wants a new West End site. Just over 50 staff are affected.
HMV is not failing: like for like sales were up 15 percent in the first nine months of 2026. The lesson for Greek businesses in London is uncomfortable. A good year does not protect you when the lease comes up, because the landlord prices the location, not your effort.
Most Greek owned shops and restaurants sit on a commercial lease of five to fifteen years, and the dangerous moments are always the same: the rent review, the break clause and the renewal. Rent reviews are usually upward only. A break clause lets one side walk away on a set date, but only if every condition in the small print is met. At renewal, a tenant protected by the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 has a right to a new lease at market rent, unless that protection was signed away at the start, something many owners do not remember doing.
Read the lease now, not in the month the landlord’s letter arrives, and get a solicitor to explain what was contracted out. Lemian and T Solicitors on Great Portland Street, five minutes from Oxford Circus, handle commercial leases and landlord and tenant disputes for Greek and Cypriot clients, in Greek, and also cover cross border matters between Greece and the UK.
Greek stop nearby: Lemian and T Solicitors at 167 to 169 Great Portland Street, Fitzrovia, for lease reviews, break clauses, renewals and landlord disputes, with advice available in Greek.
Rent is only the first bill. Business rates were reset on 1 April 2026, when every commercial property in England received a new rateable value and the old 40 percent relief for retail, hospitality and leisure ended. In its place came lower multipliers for shops, cafés and restaurants: 38.2p in the pound for small properties and 43p for standard ones, against 43.2p and 48p for other businesses. Properties rated at £500,000 or more now pay 50.8p whatever their use.
For most Greek businesses in London the questions are simpler. Is the new rateable value right? Does transitional relief cap this year’s increase, which it does at 5 percent for small properties, 15 percent for medium and 30 percent for large? Is small business rate relief still applied? NP&US Accountants, a Greek speaking ACCA regulated firm with eighteen years of UK and cross border work, can check the bill against the books, model what a doubled rent would do to cash flow, and say plainly whether the location still pays.
Greek stop nearby: NP&US Accountants at 4 Lytton Road, New Barnet, for business rates checks, cash flow planning, tax and start up advice for Greek and Cypriot owners across London.
The timing of the HMV rent rise is not an accident. The Mayor has asked Transport for London to design a pedestrianised Oxford Street, and the Oxford Street Development Corporation was set up on 1 January 2026 to lead the project. The consultation on the traffic design has closed, the report is due later this year, and no construction dates exist yet. Landlords expect a traffic free street to bring more shoppers, and they are pricing leases accordingly before a single bollard goes in.
Watch for the same pattern in your own neighbourhood. When a council announces a new station or a market square, rents move before footfall does. For Greek businesses in London on Green Lanes, in Bayswater or around Tottenham Court Road, the answer is to lock in a longer lease with a sensible review clause while the area is still being talked about rather than celebrated.
HMV hopes to move staff to its other London stores. A small Greek employer rarely has that option, and staffing is the second biggest headache after rent. Since Brexit, a trusted chef arriving from Thessaloniki or Limassol needs a visa to work, and for the Skilled Worker route the business itself must hold a sponsor licence before it can make an offer. The penalties for mistakes are serious, so this belongs with a specialist rather than a Facebook thread.
Roli Solicitors is a London firm dedicated exclusively to nationality and immigration law, including business immigration, with decades of experience and Greek speaking staff. Start the sponsor licence conversation months before an opening, not weeks.
Greek stop nearby: Roli Solicitors on Park Royal Road, NW10, for sponsor licences, Skilled Worker visas and nationality applications, with advice in Greek.
It would be easy to read all this as a reason to leave the centre. The counter example is a few minutes from HMV’s door. The Life Goddess on Store Street runs a Greek deli, café and restaurant in Bloomsbury, on a side street that keeps the rent below Oxford Street levels while still catching the crowds from Tottenham Court Road station and the British Museum. Among Greek businesses in London it is a model worth copying: a deli counter, a wine shelf and a full menu under one roof give people several reasons to walk in.
Greek stop nearby: The Life Goddess at 29 Store Street, Bloomsbury, open from 9:30am to 10:30pm Monday to Saturday, for a Greek coffee and a plate of something honest after a long day of meetings.
Getting there: Tottenham Court Road station (Elizabeth, Central and Northern lines) is three minutes from Store Street; Goodge Street is a similar walk the other way.
Two habits that cost nothing. Diarise every lease date today, with a reminder six months before each one, because notice periods are missed far more often than negotiations are lost. Keep a monthly file of rent, rates and wages as a share of sales, so that when a landlord asks for more you can show in numbers what the business can bear. And read the Greek List Business Hub, where Greek and Cypriot owners stop solving the same problems alone.
Away from the spreadsheets, the Greek calendar in the capital is full this autumn, from wine tastings and talks at the Hellenic Centre to live music and film. The Greek List events page is the most complete list of Greek events in the UK, and listing your own event is free.
The businesses featured in this article are Greek List members. More than 100,000 Greeks and Cypriots in the UK read Greek List every month on the site, in the newsletter and in the Ellines sto Londino Facebook group, and Greek List listings rank first on Google. There is a plan for every budget.
Have you faced a rent review or a lease renewal in London? Share what happened in the Facebook group Ellines sto Londino.
